keeping memories alive: preserving your family's digital legacy
TRANSCRIPT
Keeping Memories Alive Preserving Your Family’s Digital Legacy
Winchester Historical Society
April 10, 2014
Helen K. Bailey Fellow for Digital Curation and Preservation MIT Libraries
Digital isn’t forever?
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Everyday Loss
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Disasters
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Security and Privacy
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Business Failure
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Obsolescence
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Computer, circa 1980 Computer, circa 2010
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Bit Rot
• Find a picture, or make one of 1’s and 0’s turning into junk
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Information Overload
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Life Cycle Model
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Life Cycle Model (modified)
Create
Gather
Select
Process
Organize
Store
Maintain
Review
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Digital items of concern:
Videos Photographs Documents
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Creating
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Creating
File format decisions:
• Open is better than closed
• Uncompressed is better than compressed
• Long-lived is better than new-and-untested
• Common is better than unfamiliar 15
Creating Media Type Format Open vs.
Closed Compressed vs. Uncompressed
Been Around Since…
Popularity
Image JPEG TIFF
Open Proprietary
Compressed Uncompressed
1992 1986
Very common Common
Audio MP3 WAVE
Open Proprietary*
Compressed Depends**
1993 1991
Very common Common
Video MP4 AVI
Open Proprietary*
Compressed Depends**
2001 1992
Very common Common
Word Processing
DOC ODF
Closed Open
Uncompressed Uncompressed
1983 2005
Very common Less common
eBook ePub AZW (Kindle)
Open Proprietary*
Compressed Compressed
2007 2007
Common Common
* Proprietary doesn’t necessarily mean closed, but it does mean it’s owned by a private company. ** Audio and video formats are usually wrappers that can contain either compressed or uncompressed encodings of the content.
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Creating
vs.
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Gathering
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Gathering
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Gathering
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Selecting
?
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Selecting
Files to keep:
• Unique, irreplaceable files
• Files that constitute a personal record
• Files you will want to refer back to or use again
• Files you created and own
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Selecting
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Processing
• Reformat?
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Processing
• Encrypt?
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Organizing
File naming:
• Keep it short
• Be descriptive, but not too descriptive
• Left to right – unique to general info
• Avoid spaces and special characters
“DSCN_0001.JPG”
vs.
“photo 2012 apple picking in Vermont with cousin Steve YAY!!!.jpg”
vs.
“001_2012_Vermont_trip.jpg”
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Organizing
• Directory Structure:
• Easy to understand
• Representative of content
• Think about 10-years-from-now you, not current-you
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Organizing
• Tagging / embedding information (metadata):
• Adds meaning beyond file names
• Adds to search capability, especially for non-textual items (photos, video)
• May be more important to add metadata to certain formats (photographs)
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Organizing
• Common tags:
• Dates
• Subjects
• Location (GPS)
• Purpose
• Version
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Organizing
• A few tagging tools (these all embed metadata):
• Adobe Bridge
• Apple iPhoto
• Windows Photo Gallery
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Storing
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Storing
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Storing
• Factors for choosing storage options include:
• Cost and time
• Quantity (size and number of files)
• Expertise (skills required to manage)
• Ready access vs. “archive”
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Storing
• Hard disk drives (spinning disk)
• Inexpensive per amount of storage
• Requires manual copying/maintenance
• Great for both files and complete system backup
• Less reliable than flash storage
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Storing
• Solid State Drives (flash memory):
• More expensive per amount of storage
• Easier to transport
• Variable sizes and housing
• More reliable than spinning disk
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Storing
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Storing
• Cloud storage:
• Cost varies by service provider
• Often automatic backup/updating process, which reduces manual time
• Less privacy; read terms of service!
• Dependence on a third party (what happens to your content if they go out of business?)
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Maintaining
• Retrieve and spot check
• Use, use, use!
• Refresh external storage media roughly every 5 years
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Reviewing
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Preserved!
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Thank you! Questions?
• http://bitsandpages.wordpress.com/
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